Handmade at Kew

Last week we were exhibiting at Handmade at Kew, a beautifully curated contemporary craft show set in a marquee by a lake in the royal botanic gardens.

I was very excited when I discovered the existence of this beautiful show because Kew Gardens is one of my favourite places to visit. What better place to show my botanically inspired work and meet like minded folk with an appreciation of crafts and plants...

 I took my lamps and fabrics and wallpaper. Dean and I wallpapered the stand in Charlotte's Garden and it was the first time, believe it or not that either of us had wallpapered (just because I make it doesn't mean I could put it up!). But we did it and we were very chuffed with ourselves :)

Happy bunny!

My floor lamps and limited edition lamps came with us too.

I really loved seeing all the colours of the wallpaper in a row. The collection is growing nicely.

 It was a such lovely place to be for the duration of the show. Autumn was at it's finest and we had some beautiful sunny days.

 We visited the palm house,

a tonic after a long journey and a long set up.

There is so much to marvel at in there.

The show was buzzing and pulled in a lovely crowd. I met so many lovely people and it was great to put some faces to names I only knew from instagram and facebook! One such person was a botanical hero of mine Anna Laurent who is the author of The Botanical Wallchart and she has been inspiring me with her close up photography of seed pods from around the world.

Here she is identifying the seeds on my tiny treasures window film sample.

She also helped us identify this beast which we found on our way to the show one morning in a park on the edge of the Thames. It's a Turkish Hazelnut don't you know!

It's always a joy to meet up with fellow makers that you know from years on the show circuit. Let me introduce you to a few lovely people whose work you might like to explore. Janie Withers has recently developed a range of beautiful knitted lighting which has been going crazy on the design scene lately. It was good to see it and her in person (sorry Janie I caught you with your eyes closed but you do have a lovely smile nevertheless!).

There were a few Northerners at the show like Ruby Creagh who is also from Hebden Bridge and she did really well with her scrumptious leather bags.

Lovely Valerie Wartelle is from Halifax and she makes exquisite felted artworks and was showing her gorgeous cashmere scarves for the first time.

It was good to see Claire Ashton with her felted lampshades. She is from just up the road in Todmorden.

Here is smiley Stef Mitchell with her beautiful nature prints.

It was lovely to meet Flora Collingwood-Norris for the first time and I couldn't resist buying one of her knitted scarves (top left in the photo) because they were such great colours.

I love the work of Amanda Cobbet. She makes incredible studies of mushrooms using embroidery thread!

The photo's don't do them justice so do go and look at her website.

   

 I love Kasasagi Design's nature studies too.

Hers are made from paper and books. 

She has a gorgeous video on her website that shows some in the making. It's very sweet.

After being inside all day we had to run round the gardens for a bit and do a few cartwheels under the trees before we left. I promised Emma I'd include one of the pictures in my blogpost. Best photo of the bunch huh!?

I feel very inspired and buzzy after the show. Thanks to everyone who came to my stand and bought work and fell in love with my wallpaper and window film (coming soon). I hope to come back next year and do it all again!